Prints
Lighthouse - Elaine Harrison
Lighthouse - Elaine Harrison
Title: Lighthouse (1990)
Artist: Elaine Harrison
Image Size: 5 1/4” x 3 1/4” (13.3 x 8.3 cm)
Description: Block print on paper. Tipped onto note card. When closed, the note card measures 9” x 4” (22.9 x 10.2 cm). Signed in pencil by Harrison and dated ('90) at bottom right. Card inscribed inside and on back panel by Harrison to Sally and Bill Hoof. Note card shows some age toning or light exposure.
Sally Blake Hooff was born in Scotland. She earned an arts degree from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Sally also studied at the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. She taught art in Halifax, Ottawa and Montreal. She established and ran the Princetown Gallery, Malpeque, Prince Edward Island from 1985 to 1993 where she offered art works by Elaine Harrison.
Elaine Harrison (1915-2003) spent most of her working life as a teacher in Summerside. Although she was with the PEI Art Society in the 1950s, it wasn’t until her retirement from teaching in 1968 that she devoted most of her time to writing, and painting. She was inspired by the work of the Group of Seven and iconic artists such as Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. Over time, Harrison’s painting style evolved. In later years, she rarely used brushes, preferring to apply paint with a pallet knife. Harrison's works are vigorous, direct, colourful, abstracted impressions of her favourite subjects: the red cliffs and shorelines near her summer home in Fernwood; the stands of hardwood trees near her home in Bedeque, PEI; Island harbours; and her many cats. A retrospective exhibition entitled, Elaine Harrison: I Am an Island That Dreams, was held in the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown in 2011/12.